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The Defence Secretary and former leaders of the Army and Navy have all hit out at the cost of the al-Sweady Inquiry into alleged abuse of Iraqi detainees.

Sir Thayne Forbes, the retired judge who chaired the inquiry, said allegations of murder and torture made against British troops were the product of "deliberate lies, reckless speculation and ingrained hostility".

A former head of the Navy has issued a strong condemnation of the al-Sweady Inquiry.

Admiral Lord West, who headed the Navy from 2002-2006, told the House of Lords there seemed to be more interest in the human rights "of people who set out to kill us" than of British troops.

It does seem we are more willing now to concern ourselves with the human rights of people who set out to kill us - these men were actually intending to kill our soldiers and often it is people who are intending to kill civilians as well - than with the human rights of our own soldiers.

In a press release following Sir Thayne's report, Public Interest Lawyers said:

[The report] found that on a number of occasions Geneva Convention provisions had been breached including the use of improper and proscribed
interrogation techniques and that deficient medical treatment had been provided.

This important and worthwhile report upholds some of the more serious allegations against the British Army. Some allegations were withdrawn because of the work of the Inquiry, others have been dismissed. However, there are many very serious criticisms of the ill treatment and breaches of human rights of the Iraqi detainees.

Claims from nine Iraqi detainees that British soldiers tortured, mutilated and murdered fellow insurgents in 2004 are all lies, a judge said today - but only after a public inquiry that cost taxpayers more than £30 million.

The Chair of the Al-Sweady inquiry has criticised the Iraqi detainees and witnesses who gave evidence in the long-running investigation, describing their evidence against British soldiers as "unprincipled" and "without regard for the truth."

There were some instances of ill-treatment by the British military, but these were relatively minor when compared with the original very serious allegations.

I have also come to the conclusion that the overall approach of the detainees and that of a number of the other Iraqi witnesses to the giving of their evidence was both unprincipled in the extreme and wholly without regard for the truth.

The long-running Al-Sweady inquiry has cleared British troops of the murder and torture of Iraqi detainees a decade ago Credit: PA

British soldiers mistreated nine Iraqi detainees following a firefight near the town of Majar al Kabir in 2004, but allegations they murdered and tortured the Iraqis are lies, a long-awaited inquiry has found.

False allegations of murder, mutilation and torture were the product of "deliberate lies, reckless speculation and ingrained hostility", the judge-led Al-Sweady inquiry has concluded in its final report today.

The conduct of some British soldiers breached the Geneva convention, it found, but was highly critical of the claims it was initially set up to investigate.

British forces responded to a deadly ambush by insurgents with "exemplary courage, resolution and professionalism," the inquiry found.

The report suggested that some of the detainees - all described as members or supporters of the Mahdi Army insurgent group - consciously lied about the most serious allegations to discredit the British armed forces.